1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the processing of waste materials and, more particularly, to reducing the bulk of the waste material and processing the resulting waste material mass into a useful product.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
It is known in the related art to process waste materials in several elementary fashions. For example, much of the waste material in the United States is transported to appropriate sites and there, the waste material is deposited on the ground. After burning the waste material, the dumping site can be thereafter covered with a layer of dirt and the materials resulting from the incineration process permitted to decompose through natural processes. However, the available sites onto which waste material can be added are being filled by the large amount of waste material of modern society. In addition, the large volume of wastes deposited in this manner has begun to affect the purity of the ground water.
It is also known in situations where waste is produced near large bodies of water to place the waste materials on barges and dispose of the waste materials either in the large lakes or in the ocean. In an earlier day of less population and less waste, the large bodies of water appeared to have an endless capacity for absorbing waste materials. However, the amount of waste generated by the modern urban metroplexes is so large as to contaminate entire lakes and to raise the distinct possibility of contaminating much of the ocean. This contamination can have an adverse effect on the water supply.
A further method of disposal of waste has been to incinerate the waste with a high temperature process, thereby greatly reducing the volume of the waste material. The resulting mass can be used as landfill or disposing it in a large body of water. While having the advantage of providing a smaller quantity of polluting materials for disposal, this method has, however, the disadvantage of yielding an unacceptably large amount of gaseous pollutants of such a nature that removal of the pollutants from the escaping gas has been expensive and frequently ineffective.
A need has therefore been felt for a waste material processing facility that can reduce the quantity of waste material, provide a product that can have a significant, useful function, and completely consume the waste material so that disposal of a resulting product is not required. It is also desirable that the facility can be expandable as the population providing the waste material increases.